Army & Navy - MEDALS: Black Hero

To U.S. troops in the South Pacific, the
exploits of Fiji scouts on Bougainville are already legendary. The
smiling, coal-black British colonials, tall, husky and soldierly, have
deeply impressed G.I.s with their jungle craft and cool courage. One
whom troops of the U.S. XIV Army Corps will long remember was Corporal
Sefanaia Sukanaivalu.

One day last June the corporal's battalion, supported by U.S. engineers
and artillery, landed, pushed into the Bougainville jungles and ran
into a Japanese ambush. The fighting was hot and bloody.
Among the Allied casualties was Sefanaia, who had rescued two wounded
men before he went down.